Long Ones - Tall Ones - Short Ones

The San Gorgonio Pass

The San Gorgonio Pass is the eastern gateway through the mountains that ring the Los Angeles Basin. It is a transportation corridor for roads, rail, and electricity from Hoover Dam and the Palos Verde plants in Nevada and Arizona. It is also one of the windiest places in the US. The pass acts like a giant funnel concentrating the coastal flow into the hot interior of the Sonoran Desert (the Coachella Valley).

While we were there the wind blew every day but one.  And it seemed kind of weird with no wind.  Once you got into Palm Springs where the valley opened up more, the wind was less.  It really was like a funnel

The largest of these windmills stands 150 feet tall with blades half the length of a football field. The compartments at the top containing the generator, hub and gearbox weigh 30,000 to 45,000 pounds.

A wind turbine's cost can range upwards to $300,000 and can produce 300 kilowatts - the amount of electricity used by a typical household in a month. Almost all of the currently installed wind electric generation capacity is in California. The high-tech megatowers are engineered in cooperation with NASA and nursed by federal and state subsidies. 

They are ALL OVER the hills - tons of them - over 4,000 as of 2013.

and there are different sized ones.

They even have wind turbine tours.

Other random things.

Ocotillo - Just might be my favorite desert flower.



They are just so cool!

Crazy rock climber in Joshua Tree

I think the cows are happier in California

Look at the view - they are definitely happier ... definitely!

Selma, California is the raisin capital of the world!
Halos are from California.